Marsala is a seaport ceety locatit in the Province o Trapani on the island o Sicily in Italy. The law coast on which it is situatit is the wastmaist point o the island. It is best kent as the soorce o Marsala wine.

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Marsala occupees the steid o Lilybaeum, the principal stranghauld o the Carthaginians in Sicily, foondit bi Himilco in 396 BC efter the abandonment o Motya. Neither Pyrrhus nor the Romans wur able tae reduce it bi siege, but it wis surrendered tae the latter in 241 BC at the end o the First Punic War as a condition o the peace treaty. In the later wars it wis a stairtin point for the Roman expeditions against Carthage, an unner Roman rule it enjoyed considerable prosperity. It obtained municipal richts frae Augustus an became a colony unner either Pertinax or Septimius Severus.

Little remains o the auncient Lilybaeum. Fragments o the ceety waws, squared stanes, an some foondations o biggins atween the waws an the sea are visible. The so-cried grotto an spring o the Sibyl is locatit unner the kirk o San Giovanni Battista (1555), an is traditionally considered the tomb o the Cuman or Siculian Sibyl.

Tae the east o the toun is a great fosse which defendit it on the land side, an ayont this again are quarries like those o Syracuse on a sma scale.

The modren toun takes the shape o the Roman camp athin the earlier ceety, ane o the gates o which still existit in 1887. Sichts include the campanile an convent o the Annunziata, an the Baroque Kirk o the Purgatory.

The main street (the Cassaro) perpetuates the name castrum. The Biagio Anselmi Airchaeological Museum hooses an example o Carthaginian ship uised durin the Battle o the Aegates Islands (241 BC), as well as ither auncient remains frae the aurie.